Diminished levels of the soluble form of RAGE are related to poor survival in malignant melanoma.

RAGE is a central driver of tumorigenesis by sustaining an inflammatory tumor microenvironment. This study links the soluble forms of RAGE (sRAGE and esRAGE) with clinical outcome of melanoma patients. Moreover, tissue expression of RAGE was analyzed using immunohistochemistry on two independent tissue microarrays (TMA) containing 35 or 257 primary melanomas, and 41 or 22 benign nevi, respectively.

Decline in angiogenic factors, such as interleukin-8, indicates response to chemotherapy of metastatic melanoma.

Serum concentrations of angiogenic factors have been reported to correlate with tumour burden and prognosis in metastatic melanoma. The present study was performed to assess the value of angiogenic factors in serum in indicating response or failure to chemotherapy and immunochemotherapy in stage IV melanoma. Thirty-five patients suffering from stage IV melanoma according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) criteria were included in this prospective study.

Pilot study of hepatic intraarterial fotemustine chemotherapy for liver metastases from uveal melanoma: a single-center experience with seven patients.

Background: Uveal melanoma is characterized by a high frequency of hepatic metastases. For patients with liver metastases, who have a median survival of 5 to 7 months, surgery and systemic conventional chemotherapy have little to offer.

Methods: Between February 1995 and July 1999, seven patients with isolated hepatic metastases from uveal melanoma were enrolled into a pilot trial of intraarterial fotemustine therapy.

Malignant transformation of multiple dermal cylindromas.

Cylindromas are benign tumours arising as small, solitary, slow-growing nodules on the head and neck. Multiple cylindromas may form a 'turban tumour' in the autosomal dominant Brooke-Spiegler syndrome. We report two unusual cases of multiple cylindromas with transformation into cylindrocarcinomas.

Koebner phenomenon due to scratch test in scleromyxoedema.

The Koebner phenomenon or isomorphic response was originally described in psoriasis and has subsequently been observed in various other diseases. We report a patient with isomorphic response in scleromyxoedema, a variant of papular mucinosis with diffuse infiltration of the skin. The Koebner phenomenon was due to a scratch test performed 4 weeks before the appearance of streaky, lichenoid infiltrations on the forearms.